


Stealing Cinderella

by BWaves



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Marriage Proposal, Trans Character, Trans John Egbert, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 20:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4033873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BWaves/pseuds/BWaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave asks Dad for permission to marry John, and Dad gives Dave a fatherly speech about his son growing up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stealing Cinderella

**Author's Note:**

> Stealing Cinderella - Chuck Wicks

Dave Strider has never been nervous in his life. He wasn’t nervous when John came to visit for the first time, he wasn’t nervous any of the times he strifed with Bro. Nervous and Dave Strider never went in the same sentence.

Until this moment, standing in the living room of the Egbert house, staring at the pictures on the walls. Pictures of John and his dad, doing the kind of shit fathers do with their kids. Tea parties and playing in the yard, one particular picture of John grinning with chocolate cake all over his face.

And it’s nerve wracking because he knows that prior to asking Mr. Egbert if he could talk to him those pictures were not on the wall. Being alone with them is making Dave fidgety, because this is how he knows what Mr. Egbert thinks he’s going to ask. Knows he’s going to ask.

Dave sits on the couch alone for a solid twenty minutes before Egbert comes out of the kitchen, setting a bottle of water on the coffee table in front of Dave. The blonde takes it and drinks slowly, quietly. Mr. Egbert has a book under his arm. A photo album, if Dave had to guess. This was not going to be a short talk.

“So, Dave. What is it you wanted to talk about?” He asks calmly, knowingly. He folds his hands on his lap and watches the younger man sitting next to him. He has a smile on his face, the kind sort of fatherly smile that’s meant to lure one into a false sense of security. Like the smile a dad gives his son’s boyfriend when he comes over with the intent to ask to marry the aforementioned son.

Dave swallows. Drinks some more water. His throat is dry all of a sudden, hm.

If he’s gonna do this, he doesn’t want to sound nervous. He’s so sure of this. He’s so sure he wants this. He wants this so much he can hardly take it most of the time. He doesn’t want the man to think that he wants this for the wrong reasons. Dave loves John more than anything, and he wants to at least get the man’s blessing.

So, he takes a deep breath, and lets out the question smoothly.

“I wanted to ask for your permission to marry John.”

Short, sweet, to the point. He didn’t stumble, he didn’t hesitate.

Score.

The man’s mouth twitches a little. Dave can’t tell if he’s trying not to frown or trying not to smile bigger. For all of Dave’s pride in being unreadable, he truly looks up to this man right now.

The book comes out from under his arm and Mr. Egbert starts talking.

“You know when my wife and I first found out she was pregnant we were both excited. We were ready for everything. We’d been planning to have a child for years.” Dave nods slowly, settling into his seat so the man can talk. “When I first held that baby girl in my hands and saw her smile at me I knew… I knew I would do everything to protect her. After her mother died I knew it was up to me.” He opens up the book and on the first page is a younger Mr. Egbert, holding a wrapped up little bundle. Dave can see a little arm reaching up to the face smiling down at the pink hatted little baby.

“They say they grow up so fast. You don’t realize how true it is until you have a child, David. You really don’t understand it.” The man shakes his head, Dave nods in agreement. He hasn’t even thought about kids with John, it is way too early for that, but he knows that the man says these things for a reason. “Before I knew it she was walking and talking,” He flips a few pages, and Dave watches the little baby in the picture get bigger, start walking, “She was three, four, five, soon enough she was in school.” The next picture is exactly that, a little girl with pigtails standing in front of a locker, a big crooked grin on her face.

“She made friends, she lost friends. When she first started to act like a boy I didn’t think much of it.” Oh god he’s going to talk about this. John never wants to talk about this. “Being a tomboy wasn’t odd. It was just a quirky thing little girls did to seem tough or to get boys attention.” The little girl in a baseball cap, arms crossed at the camera, like she doesn’t want her picture taken.

“When John first came to me and told me he was a boy I did not accept it.” Everything is so ungodly quiet when Mr. Egbert stops talking, even just for a moment. “I would not accept that my little girl felt such a way about herself. I always thought she was a beautiful young woman, and she’d grow up to be a beautiful lady. She’d find a husband, have some children herself.”

Egbert sighs, and Dave is calmed down. No more fidgeting as the man talks. His smile has fallen a bit. He’s talking slower, as if he’s still coming to terms with what he did.

“When she came home… When he came home. Beaten up by the other kids at school for acting the way he did, for being the way he was… I knew I had made a mistake. I remembered, when I was patching up that broken nose in the bathroom, the promise I had made my child when he was just a little thing in my hands.

“I had promised to protect him. I had promised my child my love, no matter what. I broke that promise when I denied him transition. Denied him a haircut until he gave one to himself.

“When I denied my son, I broke that promise. So I fixed it. I helped him. I protected him during the difficulties of the children at school, I protected him when someone decided that he was wrong for simply existing. To this day I will do anything to make sure my son is safe, and happy.”

Dave is on the edge of his seat. He’s waiting for the answer. He’s waiting for him to say yes or no, that’s all he needs.

“When John first introduced me to you, I’ll be honest, I didn’t like you at all, David.” Dave’s shoulders slump, “But John had nothing but praise for you, so who was I to stop him from having friends who accepted him. You two have grown so close over the years. You’ve grown into an exceptional young man, yourself, Dave.”

The blonde sits up a little straighter. He hasn’t gotten praise like that. And it feels… It feels good. Hearing it from someone like Mr. Egbert. Bro’s idea of that praise was ‘you’re a pretty cool dude’, but this. It feels so much more genuine.

The man’s mouth opens again, and Dave is quiet in anticipation of what he’s going to say next, but the sound of the door unlocking across the room, the handle turning has the man’s mouth shutting and Dave balling his fists at the interruption.

The door opens to reveal the brunette in question, and John walks through, stopping at the sight of the two of them on the couch. “Uh… What’s… What are you guys up to? Conspiring against me or something?” The little way that John’s lips turn up at the side, the way his voice wavers in a little giggle he’s trying to hold back. It makes Dave’s chest tighten, and he stands up, crossing to where John is and cupping his cheeks.

He kisses that smiling face as Mr. Egbert stands up behind him, and straightens out his shirt. John is still smiling as Dave pulls away and looks at the man, hoping that he has some sort of lie as to what they were talking about. Because he doesn’t want John to know. He wants it to be a surprise.

“We were just talking about the plans for your birthday. It sounds like a perfectly good time, John.” The man nods, and John smiles back at him.

“Oh! Yeah. I mean, it’s nothing fancy or anything, but I figured a nice dinner between the three of us would be a nice way to celebrate.” He nods and Dave nods. Mr. Egbert smiles a little and walks across the room to them.

Dave takes a step back from John as the man places his hands on his shoulders, smiling at his son and leaning in to place a light kiss on his forehead. He pulls away again and straightens his shirt once more, looking to Dave again and nodding.

He gives a short little. “David.” And another nod, a smile on his face, before he excuses himself to his office and leaves the room. Dave is frozen solid for a moment, John’s hand on his own not breaking his eyes away from where the man had disappeared around the corner.

“Dave?” The blonde finally looks away, turning to John, whose eyebrows have drawn down in a sort of worried look. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Dave mumbles, and pulls John into another kiss. He holds the brunette there for a moment, wanting to savor it for just a little bit longer before he breaks away. “I wanted to ask you something.” He murmurs, smiling at John, who nods.

He takes a little step back and takes a deep breath, and he watches John’s face as he lowers down on a knee. Those blue eyes get so big. John’s eyebrows reach his hairline and one of his hands raises up to hover by his mouth. Dave gently takes the other, and smiles up at John.

“I love you.” He starts, and John’s hand covers his mouth, Dave can see his eyes welling up already and all he can do is smile up at him. “I didn’t- I didn’t have time to come up with some fancy speech, I was going to wait to do this so I could come up with something, but- fuck I just got so excited I can’t wait another minute to do this, John. I love you and I want to be with you. I want to be there for you through everything. I want to be able to… To protect you. Through whatever bullshit may come your way. I want to live with you and sleep in the same bed as you all the time and I want to wake up with you every morning and be able to look at you and say ‘he’s mine’ and I want the whole fucking picture. A lame house in the suburbs, no offense, maybe adopt a kid I don’t know, I just know that it will all be perfect if you’re there. Kids, no kids, house or not, we could live in a shitty apartment like I live in with Bro and it would be perfect if you were there with me, I don’t care, I just know that I want to be with you. Through everything.”

The whispered ‘oh my god’ Dave hears as he digs the little box out of his sweater pocket makes him smile a bit bigger. He knows his speech is not nearly romantic, nor sarcastic enough. It’s way too sincere, but it’s all he can think of. “John.” He says, and watches the other bounce on his toes a little. “Will you marry me?” Open up the box, and bam, that’s a fucking ring.

It’s nothing extravagant. It’s a simple band with some fancy pattern engraved in it, he had been eyeing one with some prettier stones on it, but he knew how John felt about the more feminine jewelry. He knew that this one would be more his style. Dave watches John’s hands cup his mouth as he nods, he drops to his knees and pulls Dave into a hug as a litany of yeses start pouring from his mouth, the tears start flowing. Dave would be lying if he said he didn’t shed a few himself as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

No. Not his boyfriend. His fiance. That sounds nice.


End file.
